I spoke to Jane and Malcolm Calder of Steels Creek this week about the loss of 95 per cent of their garden after the February 7 fires. A selector with the Australian Open Garden Scheme for the Yarra Valley, Jane and her husband regularly opened their 6000-square-metre property for the scheme and the Red Cross.
A once rambling country garden (left) it featured a mix of plantings from natives to exotics, including salvias, roses, euphorbias, red hot pokers, succulents, grevilleas, banksias, hellebores, New Zealand species, plus aubutilon (Chinese lanterns) for the birds, which are gradually returning to the area.
The Calders, pictured below in their burnt garden, planted it 23 years ago. They also lost a large vegetable plot and a small orchard.
Even though the fire came dangerously close to their house, a group of succulents survived around an ornamental pond and two sycamores - original trees on the property - a poplar, casuarina and Chinese elm are still alive although dried out.
Lilies and irises have emerged from the ashes, some roses are sprouting new leaves and even some asparagus is reshooting totally out of season.
Jane, her daughter-in-law Morgan and her three young children took refuge in the supermarket at Yarra Glen while Malcolm and his son James (Morgan's husband) fought to save their properties. A phone call from Malcolm and James at 8.30pm to say that they were okay and the houses were still standing was music to all their ears.
Gary and Lorraine Nash also lost their garden at Humevale but saved the house. Also regulars in the open garden scheme they, like the Calders, will have to start again.
Antique Perennials, the nursery at Kinglake, was also destroyed.
Sadly Bill and Fay Walker of Narbethong who also opened their garden for the AOGS died in the fires.
The scheme has pledged $50,000 to the restoration and renewal of public spaces and gardens in communities affected by fire and a further $50,000 to a National Gardens Renewal Fund to assist when rebuilding after natural disasters such as the floods in Queensland.
The scheme's CEO, Neil Robertson, said about seven years ago his organisation gave a small grant to the owners of Four Winds in New Norfolk, Tasmania to rebuild their garden after it was destroyed by fire.
"It's now been rebuilt and we were the only people who thought of giving them something. Some people think gardens are ephemeral but they are central to many people's lives." Aren't they just.
Now here's a plea for garden tools including shovels, picks, mattocks and wheelbarrows for communities affected by the fires.
To contribute call the Landscape Industries Association of Victoria on 1300 365 428 or email at admin@liv.com.au
Garden tools and equipment can also be dropped off at Chris Cross Garden Supplies, 1575 Burke Rd, East Kew till 4pm on weekdays and 1pm on Saturdays.

Gardening was foisted on Denise Gadd from a young age while living in Nottingham with her mother who worked for British rose grower Harry Wheatcroft. Denise vowed never to have a garden when she grew up - then she moved to Australia and bought a house of her own - with a garden.

Now The Age's gardening editor, Denise is as obsessed as her mother about tilling the soil and is looking forward to 'pottering by' online.